China has been touting Fujian Province’s Pingtan Comprehensive Experimental Zone as a model for a “shared homeland” for people across the Taiwan Strait, but a source familiar with the matter warned about the “barren reality behind the beautified facade.”
China on Dec. 26 last year began offering railway services to Pingtan, the Chinese island closest to Taiwan proper, on what it calls the Beijing-Taipei High-Speed Railway Corridor, which is supposed to connect China to Hsinchu through an undersea tunnel.
China’s Fujian Provincial Government on Saturday last week announced 255 incentives aimed at Taiwanese people and firms, including some for arrivals to Pingtan.
The incentives include tax exemptions or reductions, recognition of Taiwan’s standards for tourism, architecture, healthcare, environmental, educational and agricultural firms, and approval for Taiwan-made cosmetics to use traditional Chinese characters in Pingtan, the provincial government’s Web site said.
However, a source familiar with cross-strait politics on Tuesday warned of the reality in Pingtan, saying that the zone is a typical model for promoting cross-strait unificaton.
For example, a ferry service between Taipei and Pingtan was in 2013 launched under the then-presidency of Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who was keen to cooperate with Beijing’s “united front” tactics, said the person, speaking on condition of anonymity.
However, ferry traffic has been suspended since the outbreak of COVID-19 last year, the person added.
In 2014, a duty-free market touting Taiwan-made products was opened in Pingtan, but visitors have been sparse, the person said.
While a few Taiwanese took the opportunity to secure government posts in Pingtan, and some opened stores there, most Taiwanese businesspeople have since decided to withdraw their investments from the zone, except for those who engaged in property deals, the person said.
Many Taiwanese are complaining about bitter life there, they added.
Pingtan, with a population of about 400,000, does not see many tourists during the winter, and its infrastructure and development remain limited, the person said.
Also, traveling to Pingtan from other areas of China is not convenient, as for example, it takes almost three hours to drive from Fuzhou to the island, they said.
Although the high-speed railway finally reached the island after years of deferral, Pingtan’s future still seems obscure, the person said.
Despite the Chinese government’s promise of more favors for Taiwanese businesses, including allowing them to work on the construction of local infrastructure, Taiwanese can never outdo Chinese businesses there and only get the scraps, the person said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party is making false promises.
The prosperity promised to the island has not come true, even though Beijing encourages its citizens and Taiwanese to invest there, the person said.
Only two of more than 30 small trading centers in Pingtan are in use, with the rest being white elephants, the person said, adding that the zone would unlikely be able to attract investors, given its lack of productivity.
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